Despite cold weather, Tom Oliver has managed to find some march-time monsters!

With anticipation high for some mild weather in March it could not have been any worse! Temperatures have remained subzero and despite a few sunny days there has been no significant sign to say that spring is finally here. Despite these dismal conditions I decided that my first opportunity in March would be spent on my new target water for the year, a small syndicate in the Ringwood area of Hampshire. I had been regularly looking around the 10-acre lake all winter while fishing on the adjacent water and during February I started to see a few signs of carp life in one particular area.

My first trip began on the first Friday of the month after I had finished work. The conditions looked good considering recent weeks and upon arrival it seemed it wasn’t just me who had this thought because it was pretty busy. Luckily, the area where I had seen the fish was still free, so the barrow was quickly loaded and I headed to the swim nearest where I had seen the activity.

It was already late and getting dark so I quickly set about finding an area to apply some bait. A few casts later and the swim was pretty barren featurewise. However, I did find a very firm strip of silt at around 55 yards to the right of the swim. I swiftly baited the spot with around 1kg of mixed-sized Cell boilies rolled by Kent Particles, with the 10mms making up around 50 per cent of the mix. My right-hand rod was fished to the spot and the other two were cast out on single fluoros for the night. With the rods out, I sat back with a brew to relax. I retired to bed early because I was tired from work.

Waking up the next morning nothing had changed from the moment I had last looked out from my bivvy door.

I spent the morning watching the water like a hawk from the steep bank behind me and the elevated position gave me a great view of the lake.

By around 11am I started to see signs of carp in various locations around the lake and a low-flying seagull even caused the water to erupt as two big carp spooked just below the surface in front of my swim.

I was in the middle of tying some zigs at around 1pm when my right-hand rod fished over the bait slowly picked up before bursting into life. My 10mm white Cell pop-up had been picked up by one very angry carp and after a few hairy minutes near some marginal snags I netted my first fish from the venue and the first carp caught there since October! It weighed 29lb 10oz and I was made up, to say the least.

With the fish returned it was time to sort the rods for the night and top up the bait with around another 1kg of the mixed-sized boilies. Fresh rigs made with 25lb Gardner Sink Skin and size 8 Continental Muggas were attached and I decided to put a further rod on the productive spot.

Another quiet night soon passed and I awoke to see that the conditions had taken a turn for the worse, with the wind now blowing a strong northeasterly into my face and sleet falling from the dark-grey clouds.

By around 9am every angler had packed up and headed for the warmth of their homes. I was sat having a brew with my friend, Wiggy, thinking of doing the same, when my right-hand rod burst into life. I lost the fish soon after lifting the rod and was gutted but within a few minutes it was back on the spot and the kettle was back on.

We were sat watching the area that I was fishing when, all of a sudden, we saw a fish poke its head out, then another and another! With that, my right-hand rod once again burst into life and I was in to another angry carp. Everything went smoothly and I soon had a rather large mirror in the net. I slipped the fish into a sack for a few minutes so that I could get the rod back on the spot and as the lead hit the water on the recast my middle rod, also fished on the spot, was away. I chucked the rod I had just cast to Wiggy and commenced battle with another fish that was trying its best to find sanctuary in the snags to my right. I soon had things back in my favour and a lovely bronze common was netted and unhooked so that the rods could be repositioned.

With them back on the spot and a few more boilies spread with the throwing stick, we set about weighing and photographing the fish and decided to do the smaller common first because it was still in the net. It weighed 24lb 6oz and looked stunning in its winter coat. Following a few snaps he was returned to his watery home and we started getting sorted for the larger mirror. Upon removing it from the sack, Wiggy informed me that it was a fish known as Fingers, which only visited the bank a couple of times each season! It really was a stunner and my smile grew even broader when the scales tipped around to 34lb 14oz – my first 30lb-plus fish of the year. Wiggy got some great shots and after returning the fish

I sent him to get his rods so that he could fish a couple to the left of my swim and hopefully capitalise on this crazy feeding spell.

As he was setting up, my right-hand rod was once again picked up and another angry fish was trying to evade capture. It felt like another better fish as it was hugging the bottom and kiting from right to left. After a fairly simple battle, compared with some of the other fish I had caught, a lovely dark mirror lay in the folds of the net. It weighed 32lb 8oz and was my second 30lb-plus fish in around an hour!

We both got the rods back out in the zone and were sat having a cuppa when Wiggy’s was away. My middle rod also went into meltdown and we were stood in full battle curve laughing at the events that had unfolded. Everything went smoothly and Wiggy netted a 17lb 2oz mirror and mine was a 25lb 4oz mirror.

The wind was strenghthening and the sleet even colder and the fish had stopped showing. I gave it another hour and with nothing else happening I packed away more than happy with my results. Five fish, including two thirties, was a great result, especially as the lake had not produced a fish since October.

I returned the following weekend and tried to follow suit, even managing to get back in the same swim. However, conditions were even worse than before and, needless to say, the lake reminded me just how things can tend to be, especially at this time of the year!

The following Friday the van was loaded at some ungodly hour and fellow Gardner consultant Calum Kletta and I were joined by Andy Loble as we set off for Dover. We had a long weekend at French venue Lac de Laneuville planned and were going with the aim of filming content for the Gardner Tackle TV YouTube channel.

Following a long, boring drive across France, we arrived at the lake at around 4pm and quickly set off on a few circuits to try and locate some fish.

With nothing to go on, we decided to spread ourselves down one bank next to the anglers’ kitchen because we would be able to cover 90 per cent of the lake and also have the warmth of the hut if needed.

I was in the middle of the lake, with two small islands and a main gravel bar to angle to, and decided to fish one rod on each of these features. I baited with a mixture of hemp, pellets, sweetcorn and mixed-sized Shellfish B5 rolled by Kent Particles on each rod and decided to fish with a snowman on two rods and plastic-maize stack rig on the other.

Before long we were all sorted and chilling out by the anglers’ hut talking all things carpy. The conditions weren’t great, with northeasterly winds and subzero night-time temperatures, and we all retired to bed early after the long journey and early start.

During the early hours, Calum and I were fortunate enough to bank a carp each and we decided to sack the fish until it was light enough to do some filming.

At first light we prepared all the gear and removed the fish from the watery depths to weigh them and capture the moment on camera. Calum’s plump mirror weighed 30lb 10oz and mine 26lb, and we held them up beaming from ear to ear.

The fishing was slow over the weekend but we caught some great fish between us and I managed two bonus fish on the last morning by switching tactics.

I decided to fish with small PVA bags of sweetcorn and plastic-maize hook baits and just rove them around. The rigs incorporated around seven inches of the 25lb Gardner Sink Skin and size 6 Covert Incizors and I fished with a long shrink-tube kicker with a slow, progressive curve. Fishing it this way makes the hook turn and flip very quickly and aggressively and by finishing it off with the Gardner Point Doctor a carp only has to breathe near it before it is nailed!

I had managed four fish up to 26lb, Andy had three up to 25lb and Calum three up to 35lb, with all of his fish being 30lb plus. We all had a great weekend and got some superb footage and I would recommend the venue to anyone. If conditions were good I could see it being very productive. That coupled with the superb facilities and friendly English owners makes for a great trip for anyone; you can even take the family because they can stay in the luxury lakeside accommodation.

The final weekend of March was to be spent taking my good friend Martin Hancock on a guest session to my syndicate lake. We would be fishing on the bigger of the two lakes, where I had been catching well all winter, with the hope that we could bank a new PB for Martin. He is very new to the sport but is super-keen and learning fast. I first met him on one of the angling courses that I ran a couple of years back for adults and we have been friends ever since.

Martin was full of excitement and confidence as we set up in an unfavoured are of the lake, due to how busy it was.

We enjoyed a great social and take-away after we had set up and managed three mid-doubles during the hours of darkness, two of which were to Martin’s rods. He has only ever caught a handful of doubles up to his PB of 17lb 7oz, so he was more than happy. I, however, knew that we should be catching more and as my favourite swim was now vacant we quickly made the move.

With minimal gear, we made our way to the swim around 7am and quickly got sorted and threw a shelter up to try and keep the bitterly cold wind off us. I spombed around 10kg of pellets and boilies to a spot that I had been fishing all winter. Although this may sound a lot, I knew that the fish had been held up in vast numbers here for weeks and every time I had fed them they responded in a crazy way!

This occasion was no different and within an hour things went mental, with even a quadruple take occurring! We used my usual snowman setup with tiny bags over the bait and over the course of the day we banked around 25 fish, with Martin breaking his PB no less than three times! First it was a mirror of 18lb, then 19lb 8oz and the icing on the cake was a beautiful, scaly 21lb mirror. My best fish was a mirror of 22lb and we left the session buzzing. I was so pleased for Martin and could tell that it wouldn’t be too long before he would be on the bank again. In fact, I think it was around 12 hours!

That rounds off my fishing for this month but I have lots planned for next month, including my British Carp Angling Championship qualifier and a few more trips on my target water, so, fingers crossed, we will hopefully see some signs of spring!

Until next time, be lucky…
Tom Oliver